[Faith-talk] {Spam?} Baffling Bible Questions Answered for Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Paul Smith
paulsmith at samobile.net
Tue May 31 17:05:43 UTC 2016
Hello and greetings once again to most of you for the second time
today. I hope that, by God's matchless grace and His providential
care, that you are all doing well.
This particular Bible questions and answers leaves me a little bit
confused, and maybe it will for some of you as well. We have four
pastors reading these lines, and I daresay that they may take issue
with what the columnist has to say. Anyway here it is, and may the
chips fall where they may. We're in the book of Daniel.
Daniel 9:24
Question: Daniel's prophecy of the seventy "sevens" seems to be one of
the most specific found in the Old Testament. But if the prophecy
really predicts the coming of the Messiah to set up His kingdom within
490 years of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, this did not happen. If
the prophecy does not specify this period of time, how is it to be understood?
Answer: First, it is necessary to understand the content of the
prophecy. Daniel's phrases, and their most likely meaning, are the following:
1. To finish transgressions: to put an end to man's rebellion and,
thus, to establish a new order on earth.
2. To put an end to sin: to establish a new and just society in which
righteousness will triumph.
3. To atone for wickedness: to accomplish through the Messiah's
self-sacrifice the atonement that makes forgiveness possible.
4. To bring in everlasting righteousness: to permanently establish a
society in which justice, holiness and righteousness, and holiness mark
every relationship.
5. To seal up vision and prophecy: to see the fulfillment of all the
visions and predictions of the Old Testament prophets.
6. To anoint the Most Holy: to consecrate the Messiah or the temple
of God and so officially inaugurate the rule of God on earth.
It is clear from looking at this list that, despite the death of
Christ, which has won our salvation, the other aspects of Daniel's
prophecy have not yet been accomplished during the passage of nearly
2500 years.
Yet, the prophecy does speak of a period of 490 years, which is the
idiomatic meaning of the Hebrew expression "seventy sevens," or as
older versions have it, "seventy weeks." What is more, we know when the
490-year period was to have begun. Daniel 9:25 says the period begins
with "the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem." That
decree was issued in the seventh year of Artaxerxes I, in 457 B.C.
It would seem then that history's flow, according to the Old Testament
prophets, should have ended 490 years later, about A.D. 34.
But it did not.
However, if we look closely at the 490-year period, we see it is
divided into several groupings. The first is two sets of years, one
set of seven sevens (forty-nine years, 9:25) and another set of
sixty-two sevens (434 years, 9:25). According to Daniel 9:25,
forty-nine years after the decree was issued, the city "will be rebuilt
with streets and a trench." By 408 B.C., stimulated by Ezra and
Nehemiah, that work was complete. If we subtract the set of sixty-two
sevens, or 434 years, from the years that had already passed, we come
up with a date of A.D. 27, the date most scholar believe that Jesus
began His public ministry. Thus, Daniel's prediction that, after
sixty-nine of his seventy sevens, "the Anointed One, the ruler, comes"
(9:25) would be completely accurate.
But what about the rest of the prophecy? And what happened to the
seventieth "seven," the last seven years in Daniel's prophecy? Verse 26
says that, after the sixty-ninth seven, the Anointed One (the word is
"Messiah" in Hebrew, "Christ" in Greek) "will be cut off, and have
nothing." This is a clear Old Testament indication of the death of the
Messiah. The prophecy of this verse goes on to predict the subsequent
destruction of the city and the temple, after which "the end will come
like a flood."
The poin here is that we know from history that the seventieth
seven-year period did not follow directly upon the sixty-ninth. After
the Messiah appeared at the end of the sixty-ninth seven, a period of
time passed before His death about A.D. 30. And another period of some
forty more years passed before the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and its
temple in A.D. 70. Clearly then, since verse 27 picks up the sequence
of the final seven-year period, an undetermined period of time is
interposed between the end of the four hundred eighty-third year of
Daniel's prophecy and the final seven years.
If this understanding is correct, history's culminating events spoken
of by the Old Testament prophets, and by Jesus in Matthew 24 and Mark
13, will take place in our future, when the final seven-year period of
Daniel's prophecy begins.
Daniel 11:12
Question: What events are described in the complex images and
difficult language of these chapters?
Answer: Intense study of chapter 11 and comparison with the history of
the area make it clear that much of this description has to do with
rulers who lived between the time of Daniel and the New Testament era.
Many, however, see 11:40 as a transition verse, shifting the focus of
description from history past to the distant future and specifically to
the last of Daniel's seventy sevens. The interpretation of the passage
is complicated by differing views of prophetic passages held by
Christians and also by the fact that prophecy frequently has dual
reference. That is, a prediction might be of actions taken by the
Seleucid Antiochus IV around 160 B.C. and at the same time foreshadow
actions to be taken by a more distant, more powerful and evil ruler at
history's end. While the complications of the passage are best left
for commentaries to unravel, it is enough to note that every prediction
made by Daniel that involves history past has been fulfilled literally.
Thus, we can assume that any predictions still unfulfilled will be
fulfilled in just as literal a fashion.
And there you have this week's Baffling Bible Questions column for this
week. Hope you were able to make some sense of what you read.
I have a question that perhaps only one of our four pastors reading
this can answer. In the first question, among the six explanations,
mention was made of "transgressions" in 1 and "sin" in explanation 2.
What is the difference between a sin and a transgression? Thanks for
anyone stepping up to the plate to answer my question.
And that will do it for today. Next Monday, Lord willing, this column
will continue, but tomorrow we will resume the Daily Thought posts.
Until then may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe,
individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.
Your Christian friend and brother, Paul
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